We won a Pedestrian Blogster Award!
Somethingyousaid.com’s Founder and Editor, Bobby Townsend, enjoys the sweet smell of victory:
I was thirteen when I last won something. It was at a football camp. I won the keepy-up competition. So for my website to be nominated at the 2013 Pedestrian Blogster Awards was flattering and something of an honour.
Unfortunately, being currently overseas, I was unable to attend the awards ceremony in Sydney on Friday, so one of my team, the very talented Elfy Scott, went in my place. Before the big night, she asked me if she needed to prepare a speech. I scoffed. “To be honest,” I told her, “I’m just chuffed to be nominated. We’ve got no chance of winning.”
While being incredibly proud of my site, I genuinely felt we were there to make up the numbers. Something You Said is barely a year old. I started it with the mission statement of giving a platform for up-n-coming creatives to share words and pictures that focused as much on the people you’d never heard of as those that you had; a site that didn’t care about celebrity culture and only cared about talent and interesting shit. Despite offering this on a daily basis, it still felt like we were up against the bigger boys in this competition.
On Friday, I was happily tapping away at my laptop, dealing with the gazillion emails that land in my inbox each day, when I received a message from Elfy. The Pedestrian Awards were in full swing. Her email read: “BOBBY WE WON A FUCKING AWARD. I was totally under the impression that was not a possibility. You’ll be glad to hear I started screaming at the crowd like a UFC champion when it happened and my interview (pictured below) is gonna be some gushing gibberish. I hope I wont embarrass you too much.”
When I finally accepted this to be true, rather than believing that she’d got drunk on free booze and done a Kanye during someone else’s acceptance speech, I jumped around the room punching the air in a motion which strangely dissected aggressive and very camp. It was true, Something You Said had triumphed in our category, Media, Tech & Design. Meanwhile, Youtuber Troye Sivan scooped the overall prize (congrats!). You can see a full list of winners here.
Because I wasn’t there to say my thanks on the night, I’d like to go a bit Gwyneth Paltrow-at-The-Oscars on you now, if you don’t mind. Here goes…
The award is for my entire team. There are a whole bunch of us who all give up our time and effort for free, simply with a genuine desire to create and share our words and pictures and art. To intrigue, interest, inform and entertain. I love my contributors. They are the best. And this recognition validates the hours we sit behind our laptops or in dark rooms watching bands/films on our own when we should really be socialising/studying/having lives.
It feels great to know we are doing things right and that people like what we offer, and we’re going to use this as a springboard to make Something You Said bigger and better, but for now, this is just a quick thank you. Thanks to Pedestrian for the Award, thanks to those who took the time to vote, thanks to everyone who visits our site, thanks to my Assistant Editor for putting up with my constant flounces and strops, and thanks to the brilliant, talented, hard-working contributors that make the site what it is.
Something You Said is a labour of love for me. In my entire life, it is the thing I have put the most effort into. I work relentlessly to make it is good as I can, so for my team to win an award genuinely means a lot. I’m immensely proud. Thanks.
Bobby, Founder and Editor.
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